Like Flowers In Springtime
by dshell99
Summary: Kevin and Edd bond over a small patch of flowers in Edd's backyard. But Kevin soon falls in love with the most beautiful flower in the space: Edd. How their love will grow all depends on how much work they're willing to put into it. Disclaimer: I don't own Ed, Edd and Eddy. I only own my plot.
**Author's Note: This story was inspired by a photoset of flowers on tumblr and the OP suggested we look at people like how we look at flowers.**

When they bought the house, Edd was disappointed at how _drab_ the backyard looked. But when Kevin reminded him that they _owned_ this house, the biology professor brightened up.

They'd been together for ten years, married for three. Growing up, Edd had an extensive garden in his backyard. Kevin remembers Edd and Rolf exchanging gardening tips and grew curious as to what his genius neighbor was up to.

One bright spring day, he saw Rolf dropping off a load of fertilizer at Edd's back gate. He had _never_ seen him so excited about something so _gross_ in his life. When Rolf didn't show up at the park for their regular hoops and talk about the cuties in their respective classes, he went to look for him. When Rolf's Nana said he was still at Edd's, he was pretty stoked about his chance to see what Edd was up to when it came to all the gardening tips he was getting from their farming neighbor.

When he came into the backyard, what he saw reminded him of the garden in the park. Only on a smaller scale since it was in Edd's backyard. There were flowers _everywhere_. Roses, hibiscus, lilies and orchids. Tulips, marigolds, and honeysuckle vines were wrapped around posts that separated each patch of flowers from the next set in Edd's garden.

It was beautiful, and it smelled like it, too.

When the other two boys noticed Kevin standing there and just _staring_ at the massive amount of flowers in front of him, they both enthusiastically waved him over and took him through the space. Edd loved the beauty of it all. Especially the science behind it. The right amount of water and sunlight would yield the biggest and best blooms but the trick was finding what worked best for _all_ of the flowers. And Edd seemed to have found it. Rolf was just happy to have someone who shared his love of Mother Nature.

Considering his afternoon of shooting hoops with Rolf was gone as Rolf and Edd still had a lot of gardening to do, Kevin offered to help and the two gardeners put him through his paces. But seeing Edd's happy grin when they were done was worth it. Edd didn't smile enough as far as Kevin was concerned. Most of the time it was a fake smile brought on by polite necessity. He managed to learn how to fake a smile at a fairly young age to get people to buy into Eddy's scams. Seeing him _genuinely_ happy on his own accord thrilled Kevin to pieces.

And he wanted to make sure it happened as often as possible, so he offered his services for whenever Edd needed him. Edd was slow to take him up on it, though. He said he didn't want to bother him with something so "uncool."

 _"Dude, if it makes you happy, I'm gonna help. That's what friends are for, right?,"_ Kevin had said.

Edd nodded as he blushed. They had just became friends that previous summer, but for both it was still kind of awkward to figure out who the other was, even though they had known each other virtually their entire lives. But in gardening, they found common ground. Kevin wouldn't try to sell tickets to walk through it and _pick souvenirs_. He wouldn't bumble through the place and mess up _hours_ of work put into making it look as it should as Ed would. His questions were logical and genuinely curious. And he _wanted_ to help.

So every fall they'd plant and every spring they'd watch the backyard come to life. It was Kevin who suggested plants that would bring different kinds of butterflies and hummingbirds. He figured it would make the place a little more lively and he was right. But then he saw Edd's face _light up_ as a butterfly landed on his shoulder. And from somewhere deep down inside, he _knew_ that he'd do _anything_ to make sure Edd's face looked like that every spring for as long as Edd would let him.

By the time they were juniors in high school, they were best buds. Beyond gardening, they both had the same interests in comic books and movies and a few video games. While Edd liked reading biographies and scientific and medical journals, Kevin preferred crime novels and mechanics magazines. But they could still share what they learned openly with the other and knew they were safe from judgment.

When spring break, and thus the week Edd's garden would come to life came, Kevin waited for three days with his cell phone in hand for Edd's message or phone call that the flowers were blooming. When he got the picture message of Edd's smiling face next to a rose that had just opened, he _ran_ over to Edd's.

When he got to the back gate and saw Edd's smile as he waved to him, he knew that his racing heartbeat wasn't just because he had run across the street to see the garden.

 _That grin, tho._

 _Sparkling eyes as blue as the hydrangeas._

 _Cheeks as pink as the young hibiscus that was blooming next to Edd's feet._

 _An open mind that didn't judge his interests._

Out of all the flowers standing in that garden, the raven haired, blue eyed boy was the most beautiful of all.

 _"Kevin, look!,"_ Edd had squealed as a monarch butterfly landed in his hands.

 _Excited blue met sweet green_.

"Dork."

A smirk.

And Edd grabbed his hand as he gave Kevin a tour of what all their hard work the previous fall had produced.

When a butterfly landed on Kevin's shoulder, Edd stood on tiptoe to get a better look at it and Kevin could have _sworn_ that Edd heard his heartbeat. He definitely _felt_ it when he touched Kevin's chest to get better leverage as he stared at the butterfly that seemed to want to make Kevin his friend.

 _"It's just a butterfly, Kev,"_ he had said with a small smile.

 _"It's not just the butterfly, Edd."_

 _Apologetic blue met…yearning green._

Kevin knew Edd was out. Kevin was the first person Edd had come out to when they were in this spot freshman year. And he watched as guy after guy broke the genius' heart because they couldn't appreciate Edd for who he was. Not like Kevin did. Kevin wanted to take Edd for himself back then, but was too afraid and still confused about who he was.

 _But now, now he knew._

The butterfly fluttered away as Kevin leaned in to kiss the full lips of a boy who could recite the scientific periodic table like kindergartners did the alphabet, but also could drop the lyrics of an obscure rap song in general conversation like some people did with inane comedic movies. He was an _enigma_ and Kevin _loved him_ for it. And the way Edd kissed him back let Kevin know that the feelings were going to be reciprocated as much as they were going to be treasured like his prized lilies.

When the kiss broke apart, Edd's cheeks were as red as the Irish Roses Kevin's mom insisted they plant last year.

"Will you be my _Irish Rose?,"_ Kevin had asked him.

Edd nodded as he blinked tears out of serene blue eyes and Kevin knew that no matter where they ended up together, Edd would be the most beautiful flower in their life's garden.

They spent their college years in dorms and apartments. When they got married, they rented a house they rented a house near the university Edd was going to receive his master's and doctorate degrees from. Then came the job offers. They moved several times before Edd found a university that would give him a permanent placement.

One of the selling points to Edd on every place they had together up until this point was the garden or the fact that they could get some kind of plant life in their space. They had _dozens_ of hanging and potted plants, but they'd have to create a garden themselves. Edd was feeling a bit apprehensive about doing so, as he hadn't planted a garden since his senior year of high school, but welcomed the challenge.

He and Kevin spent _weeks_ getting the garden set up and ready for the planting season. But as soon as he was ready to _dig in_ , he had to make a trip across the country to deal with his parents' divorce. After he graduated high school, they sold the house and moved to New Mexico. Kevin's parents still stayed in Peach Creek, but it _hurt_ Edd to know that the garden he had from seventh grade until he graduated was no more. The new owners didn't want to deal with the work and leveled the landscaping in the front and backyards to make it easy to cut the grass. This was all the more reason for him to have a garden in he and Kevin's new home.

His parents wanted to give him his inheritances from their joint estate before splitting up for good. But the two wealthy business consultants had an extensive joint estate. Going through the paperwork was going to take _weeks_. Edd would teach his classes via the university's telecom link set up between the university's broadcast media department and Santa Fe's basic cable station. Then every night he would pour over the accounts and files of two people who had more of a business arrangement than a marriage. But before he went to sleep, he'd call Kevin and fall in love with him all over again. Just because _his_ parents couldn't hold it together didn't mean that he and Kevin were doomed. Kevin would tell him about his day at his body shop, _flirt_ with him like he did when they were in high school, ask him a million questions about how he wanted to do the garden and make his own suggestions on how to get things started.

But by the time Edd got back to town, planting season had passed. He was a little disappointed that he wouldn't be able to look at his own backyard through the window over the kitchen sink and see a lovely garden looking back at him. He poured himself into the hanging and potted plants in their sunroom and made plans for next fall.

But one sunny Saturday morning in mid-April, Edd looks up from the sink full of breakfast dishes and sees a humming bird dancing from one bright red rose to a hibiscus plant and back again.

Then the butterflies came.

 _"Kevin!,"_ he yells as he _runs_ out into the backyard.

The redhead was in the garage tuning up his bike and nearly dropped the oil pan when he heard Edd scream his name and the backdoor _slam._

Edd couldn't understand why he didn't see it before, but there it was.

 _His garden_.

All the plans he had made were already looking back at him in bright hues that would have made a rainbow gleam with _envy_.

Looking through the kitchen window, Kevin grinned as Edd spun around the garden doing his best to take it all in with butterflies dancing around him. Grabbing his phone, he headed outside and brought up his camera.

"Say, 'cheese!'"

And Edd flashed him his _biggest_ smile. But his _favorite_ picture is of Edd with a huge grin on his face as he looks cross eyed at a _blue_ butterfly that landed on his nose. He set that picture as his Facebook profile picture. The panorama picture of Edd walking through the garden became his Facebook cover photo and he printed copies of both to have in his office at his body shop.

"How did this happen, Kev?," Edd asked that night as he gazed at the fireflies dancing in the garden as they took dinner on the deck.

"Planted everything when you were in Santa Fe. Didn't want our first spring here to be as _drab_ as it looked when we bought the place."

Edd grinned at the memory of how he had complained about how _uninspiring_ the backyard looked compared to the well-appointed front yard and the house itself.

"I have trained you well, young padawan,"

Kevin laughed.

"Like I said, if it makes you happy, I'm helping. Can't have my _Irish Rose_ wilting under my watch. "

Edd blushed as red as the flowers Kevin had nicknamed him after.

"I am _so_ happy," Edd said as he grinned at the beautiful sight before him.

"Good," Kevin said as he took Edd's hand in his and they made plans for _next year's_ garden.

And their love grew like their garden because they took care of it like they took care of the flowers that brightened up their little corner of the world. Because love only looks like flowers in springtime when you do the work to take care of it when you got it at planting time.


End file.
